Monday 5 August 2013

Struggling with the Farsight Supplement


I am planning to write a review of the Farsight supplement, but I’m struggling - specifically, I’m struggling with the way it interacts with a Codex army when allied. I’m horribly confused!

An example - the bit about signature systems says

Any Character in your army that may select Signature Systems may not select from those listed in Codex: Tau Empire, but may instead select from the Signature Systems of the Farsight Enclave.

So, on the face of it it’s quite clear. Army is defined in the rules as including both your primary and secondary detachment. So, if you take either a primary or an allied detachment from the Farsight Supplement, then you can only take the Farsight Signature Systems, even if you take a Codex force either as an allied or a primary detachment.

However - another example

“In a Farsight Enclave Army, all XV8 Crisis Teams are troops choices instead of elite choices”

So if “army” includes both primary and allied detachments, does this mean that I can take a minimum Farsight allied detachment  (a Fireblade and one unit of Kroot) and then all XV8s in my primary Codex detachment are scoring? That doesn’t seem right. So does “Farsight Enclave Army” really mean Farsight Enclave Detachment”?

So if "Farsight Enclave Army” really means “Farsight Enclave Detachment” should the first quote really read

Any Character in your [Farsight Enclave Detachment] that may select Signature Systems may not select from those listed in Codex: Tau Empire, but may instead select from the Signature Systems of the Farsight Enclave.

Buggered if I know!

Do you?

EYIG

9 comments:

  1. I been arguing this on dakka for weeks

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  2. I want to believe that it is written as two separate armies, otherwise there would be no point to "ally" them in the first place. So if primary is Codex: Tau Empire and you Ally in Farsight supplement Sig systems are still usable from both codexes.

    Markerlights are a big question in my head though. Can Farsight allies use Tau empire markerlights and vice versa?

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  3. Seems the rules bits of the supplements are somewhat rushed and a bit of an afterthought. In the Iyanden one a spiritseer can give a wound back to a wraithknight whenever it feels like in the movement phase for example. Frustrates me when GW is lazy like this.

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  4. Agreed – it is a mess!

    @BB – the target acquired rule says “Immediately before a unit from Codex: Tau Empire shoots….”. The Supplement says that a Farsight Enclave Army is chosen from the Tau Empire Codex, but uses additional rules. Accordingly I would say that Farsight units, taken from the Tau Codex can use Codex Marker Lights. HOWEVER, members of the “8” are not from the Tau Codex, so RAW, they can not use marker lights at all!

    Having thought about this a lot since posting I’m edging towards a very restrictive interpretation….! Essentially, if “army” means the whole of your list i.e. including both primary and allied detachments, then Farsight Enclave Army must mean an army consisting only of Farsight units i.e. if there is an allied detachment at all, then it’s not a Farsight Enclave Army. If that’s right then, bringing along Codex allies means you lose all the benefits of having a Farsight Enclave Army e.g. XV8s can not be troops in either you primary or secondary detachments.

    I’m sure this is not what was intended, but based on RAW….!

    FAQ soon please!

    EYIG

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  5. The thing is I couldn't find anything in the rulebook that states that "army" means both primary and allied detachment. Technically the allies are with your army and part of your army list, but there doesn't seem to be a defining rule using the term "army" to include the allies.

    In the allies section it seems to use "army" as reference to the different army codices.

    pg 112 "The Allies
    Matrix shows the levels of potential alliance between each army."

    Since its states that Farsight Enclaves are battle brothers to Tau Empire, it would seem tau codex and the codex supplement are each defined as an "army," so rules with the use of the word "army" should apply within the codex or codex supplement, not combined.

    The only problem with this would be the Divergent Destiny rule. If the term "army" is determined by codex or codex supplement and not overall detachment this would mean your primaray detachment/farsight enclaves could not include Aun'va or Shadowsun, but your allied detachment from Tau Empire Codex could.

    Which might be the way it was intended. Essentially you could never have a main farsight army with aun'va or shadowsun as a warlord, but they could be in the allied attachment basically not in the army buy alongside the army. Narrative wise Farsight did fight alongside shadowsun.

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  6. @Jystor - p109 of the BRB, second column under the heading Allied Detachments. Seems pretty clear that "army" includes primary and allied detachments.

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  7. The problem is "army" is not a defined term like say armor save. There is more then one instance in the rule book where "army" is used to define your overall army list and use to reference an army contained within the codex.

    Since the rule book refers to each codex seperately as an "army" let it seems that rules in a codex referring to "army" would mean the "army" contain within that codex and not army list or "army" to field as a whole. Even the codex refers to itself as the rules need to field an "army" from this codex.

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  8. Horribly confused! FAQ required I think.

    EYIG

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